Over-commitment and decision making in the Venture Capital industry

I have been busy this week with the most thorough assignment I have worked on during the MBA for the "Problem Solving and Consulting" course I took last two blocks, using the "Problem Based Learning" methodology.

Based on the suggestively titled paper by Staw and Ross, "Knowing when to pull the plug", I developed the mnemonic model below, dubbing it the 6-finger-hand action plan. Sometimes it is necessary to introduce a bit o fun in academia.


The paper is coming along nicely, and I really enjoyed researching for it, as it was certainly aligned with my own private research for my professional development and career plans. I had the chance to interview 3 senior executives in the Canadian Venture Capital industry and a leading professor in the field of new ventures, Dr. Elspeth Murray. I will most probably put some of my findings here in the blog later on but, at the moment, I have to go back to writing, as the clock is ticking quicker and quicker.

No playing allowed anymore

The weekend in Montreal was a well deserved pause. And, considering the fact that I am only taking one course this block, I was expecting to have a bit of slack now.
But it ain't so. It is not bad, but I have to pay attention. I am taking Services Management as a full course and Advanced Topics in Marketing as a listener. Should (and will) work out quite well. But Services Management is a very case intensive course, I have to read a lot. Additionally, I have to prepare 2 written case discussions, a case presentation with a group, another group assignment on customer loyalty and a compliment/complaint letter exercise. At least the last one is done and I had to do it anyway, as my complaint is a real one with a store in Toronto. And it seems that the issue will be solved.
The workload is high, but not unbearable. And the cases are interesting. But two of the courses I have taken last block still have left me bigger assignments I have to complete until the end of next week. This means quite a bit of juggling with appointments and a need of good planing and discipline.
I believe that I have found a good way to work. I simply stay in my team room in the Business School from as early as 7:45 in the morning to as late as midnight, or even 1 a.m.. I have the impression that I can concentrate better here that at home. At least during this week, when the co-op dining hall is closed and I am living of instant noodles cooked in the resource room's microwave oven. At least I don't have the co-op kitchen duty of 3 weekly hours to do. And now let me get back to the IKEA Child Labour case.

Submitting assignments at WBS

Tip of the week for the Mannheimers coming next term.

Assignments are submitted online through www.my.wbs.com. Usually the intranet is quite stable, although we had a problem during the submission deadline on Monday. But things were sorted out nicely.

Take a look at the e-mail below and do your files in shades of greys.

Gratuitous x-mas
tree bokeh, with a twist.
Originally uploaded by
Corey (a.k.a. Ten0fnine)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Miriam Mason
Date: Dec 6, 2007 11:52 AM
Subject: EBE assignment
To: FMBA students 2007 intake

Dear All

I understand there's been some discussion regarding submission of the assignment in colour. This is just a reminder for clarification purposes that you're required to submit online, and according to University policy all work is printed in black & white. It would therefore be more beneficial to produce your graphs/charts accordingly, i.e. using shading etc, rather than in colours which may not be clear when printed.

I hope this helps - and good luck with the assignment!

Kind regards

Miriam Mason
Programme Manager, Full-time MBA
The Warwick MBA
Warwick Business School